1. Field of the Invention
A method of providing an emergency contact party telephone line in response to an emergency.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various methods and devices are available for providing emergency response to a user. One such method is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,166,972, issued to Dawn Smith on Nov. 24, 1992 (hereinafter referred to as “Smith '972”). The Smith '972 method starts with the steps of providing a user device and providing a monitoring database including a plurality of contacts and including a first contact method for contacting each contact. The method continues with the step of establishing communication between the user device and the monitoring database. The method then proceeds with the step of establishing an emergency condition with the user device. Upon the emergency condition being established, the method continues with the step of sending an emergency notification from the user device to the monitoring database. Once the monitoring database receives the emergency notification, the method continues with the step of automatically establishing a support line with the monitoring database. Finally, the method ends with the steps of automatically sending a notification message to each of the contacts with the first contact method and automatically providing each of the contacts that accepted the notification message through the first contact method with a route to connect to the support line.
While the Smith '972 method sets up a support line in response to an emergency, it is unable to reach out to contacts who do not accept the notification message through the first contact method. There is a continuing need for an improved method for providing an emergency response to a user.